Process of making shingles



Patented May 16, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PROCESS F MAKING SHINGLEB poration of New J Application December 24, 1935, Serial No. 55,983

3 Claims. (Ci. ill-68) 'Ihis invention relates to siding or roofing shinsies and more particularly to felt base vari-colored shingles adapted to be laid to form an ornamental surfacing covering.

5 It is an object of this invention to provide a novel procedure for manufacturing, without substantial waste, covering elements having areas of di'erent appearance thereon.

Another object of the invention is to provide a m procedure for applying longitudinal bands of granular surfacing material of different characteristics to a roofing web and cutting the web diagonally to form strip shingles having spaced shingle-simulating tabs along one edge thereof.

i5 each of the tabs being entirely covered with granular material of one of the bands.

A further object of the invention is to provide a novel strip shingle having sloping, substantially parallel transverse edges and shingle-simulating tabs projecting from one longitudinal edge, the tabs of the shingle being covered with surfacing material of diilerent characteristics.

In accordance with this invention a sheet of roofing felt saturated with waterproofing material such as asphalt or other bitumen and having a layer of waterproof material such as asphalt on a surface thereof is advanced beneath a plurality of streams of granular material of different characteristics, for example, of different sizes or of different colors, whereby the granular material is applied to the sheet in parallel longitudinal bands. The granular material is then partially embedded in the coating layer and the sheet is advanced to cutting mechanism arranged to cut strip shingle elements, having shingle-simulating tabs along one edge thereof, diagonally from the sheet in such manner that the transverse edges of the elements are substantially parallel to and may coincide with the transverse edges of the roofing sheet and each of the shingle-simulating tabs falls for the most part or preferably entirely within one of the bands of surfacing material.

In the accompanying drawing.

Fig. l is a view in side elevation illustrating diagrammatically apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention,

Fig. 2 is a plan view of Fig. l, parts being omitted, and illustrating one method of cutting shingies from the roofing sheet,

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary plan view of a roof formed by laying the shingles shown in Fig. 2, and

Fig. 4 is a cutting diagram illustrating a modied embodiment of the invention.

Referring to the drawing, reference character I designates a web which may be a sheet of roofing felt which has beenA saturated by immersion in a waterproofing saturant such as asphalt or other bitumen by passing the felt alternately over and under guide rolls disposed above and 5 below the surface of the saturant. The saturated sheet I passes to coating apparatus involving a rotatable coating roll 2 partially immersed in a bath of coating material I and contacting with the under surface of the roofing web I to apply l0 thereto a layer of coating material. Plastic waterproof coating material. for example. asphalt, is discharged by pipe l upon the upper surface of the roong sheet and roll 6 functions to uniformly spread the material over the sheet. 15

Immediately upon leaving the coating apparatus and while the coating material is still tacky, the sheet passes under a hopper divided into compartments 8 and III containing granular material, such as crushed rock or slate, of different 20 characteristics. For example, compartment 8 may contain red granular material and compartment I8 may contain green granular material; alternatively the granules may be respectively coarse and ne, either of the same or dif- 25 ferent colors. A rotary distributor roll I2 disposed in the hopper operates to discharge differently colored streams of material therefrom and deposit it in parallel bands I3, M upon the sheet as will be apparent from an inspection of Fig. 2. 30 The distributor roll I2 is driven from any suitable source of power (not shown) and may conveniently be geared to the driving means for the other roong instrumentalities.

After receiving the bands of granular material 35 the sheet passes about reversing roll I4 which functions to partially embed the material in the plastic coating layer. Excess granules fed to the sheet gravitate to the compartment from whence they came upon passage of the sheet from the roll 4o Il to the roll Il. As the sheet passes from roll Il to roll II it comes under hopper I8 containing mica dust, talc or other composition capable of rendering the back of the sheet non-cementitious. The material from hopper I8 is discharged there- 45 from by distributor roll I1. The talc-covered sheet passes about roll I6, excess talc falling therefrom back into the hopper IB and thence through a series of calender rolls I8 to a looping rack I9 where it is given an opportunity to cool. 50

The cooled sheet is advanced to cutting mechanism designated generally by the reference numeral 2|) for cutting strip shingles diagonally from the sheet. ln the form of the invention illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 the cutting mechanism the body portions of the shingle elements are involves a cutting cylinder 2| and a cooperating cylinder 22 for pressing the sheet against the knives 23 of the cutting cylinder. As shown in Fig. 2 the knives 23 operate to form diagonally extending straight cuts 24 alternating with broken cuts 25, the cuts 24 defining the upper edges of pairs of strip shingles 26, 21 and the cuts 25 defining wide-spaced tabs 29, 30, 3|, 32 separated by complementa] spaces along edges of the shingles to be exposed. The abutting side edges of the tabs 29, 3D extend parallel to the length of the roofing sheet and coincide with the meeting line between the differently colored bands I3, I4. The transverse edges of the shingles, including the outer edge of one tab of each shingle, coincide with the edges of the roofing sheet. If desired, roofing material of a width of any desired multiple of that shown in Fig. 2 and having any desired number of differently colored bands thereon may be employed in manufacturing shingies in accordance with this invention. If, for example, a rooiing sheet of a width twice that of the sheet illustrated in Fig. 2 and having four diii'erentiy colored bands is employed, such sheet may be cut into two rows of shingle elements each having one transverse edge coinciding sub- -stantially with the edges of the sheet and the other transverse edge abutting and coinciding with the meeting line between the two inner bands of surfacing material. It will be observed that my surfacing and cutting operations result in the manufacture, without waste, of strip shingles having diagonally disposed transverse edges and a plurality of wide spaced semi-hexagonal tabs projecting from their longitudinal edges, the tabs being surfaced with granular material of dierent colors.

The shingles shown in Fig. 2 may be laid as shown in Fig. 3 with the diagonal transverse edges of adjacent shingles of each course in abutting relation and the lower edges of the tabs coinciding with the upper edges of the spaces between the tabs of the subiacent course. The resultant roof gives the appearance oi' being formed of individual hexagonal shingles of different colors.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in Fig. 4, four parallel longitudinal bands of differently colored granular surfacing material 3l, 35, 36, 31 are applied to the coated rooing sheet. These bands may advantageously be applied by surfacing apparatus (not shown) including four hoppers containing four differently colored kinds of granular material arranged in a manner which will be apparent from the hereinabove description in connection with Figs. 1 and 2. After application of the bands of surfacing material the sheet is cut along generally diagonal broken lines 28, into strip shingles each having four differently colored shingle-simulating tabs 39 separated by slots l0 simulating the spaces between individual shingles along the forward edge thereof and having additional spaced mailing tabs Ii along the top edge thereof. Each of Le tabs I9 falls entirely within one of the bands oir surfarng material, and hence is of a uniform color. The slots 40 are formed along the meeting lines between the colored bands 24, 25, 36, I1. It will be observed that the transverse edges of disposed diagonally with respect to the general direction of extent of the shingle bodies and coincide substantially with the edges of the roofing sheet so that substantially no waste is involved in cutting the shingles. The rooilng sheet employed in accordance with the procedure illustrated in Fig. 4 may be of any desired width. For example, a sheet twice as wide as that shown in Fig. 4 may be employed and such sheet may be cut longitudinally along its median line as well as transversely so that each pair of transverse cuts forms a pair of shingle elements. The elements of Fig. 4 may be laid in overlapping courses with the elements of the same course in abutting relation and the tabs of each course staggered with respect to the tabs of the underlying course. When thus laid, my shingles provide a varicolored roof of ornamental, pleasing, appearance.

Accordingly, it will be seen that I have provided a novel process for manufacturing shingle elements having diagonal transverse edges and shingle-simulating tabs of diiferent characteristics projecting from the longitudinal edges of the elements. In accordance with my invention, the shingle elements may be cut diagonally from a roofing sheet without substantial waste of roofing material, and when laid form a roof of variegated ornamental appearance. While the bands of different appearance on the roofing sheet may be formed by applying streams of diilerently colored surface material thereof, such bands may also be formed by applying surfacing material of different sizes, for example, coarse and iine, or of different appearance in other respects, for example, shiny and dull.

Since modications may be made in the above without departing from the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

l. A process of manufacturing multi-colored strip shingles having shingle-simulating tabs separated by relatively narrow cutouts simulating the spaces between individual shingles along one longitudinal edge thereof which comprises applying a plurality of differently colored bands of surfacing material to a coated roofing base, cutting said base along generally diagonally extending broken lines, each cut defining the shingle-simulating tabs and the cutouts between the tabs of one strip shingle and the upper edge of a continuous shingle, said cuts being at such an angle to said parallel longitudinal bands that the cutouts register substantially throughoutI their lengths with the meeting edges of the differently colored bands so that each tab falls entirely within one of the bands.

2. A process of manufacturing multi-colored strip shingles having shingle-simulating tabs separated by relatively narrow cutouts simulating the spaces between individual shingles along one longitudinal edge thereof and nailing tabs along the other longitudinal edge which comprises applying a plurality of parallel diiferently colored bands of surfacing material longitudinally to a coated roofing base, cutting said base at spaced intervals along generally diagonally extending congruent broken lines to form the shingle elements, each of said cuts defining shingle-simulating tabs having tapering lower ends and cutouts along the forward edge of one strip shingle and the nailing tabs along the rear edge of an adjacent shingle, said cuts being so positioned that each of the'cutouts registers throughout its entire length with the meeting line between two of said adjacent parallel differently colored bands and each of said shinglesimulating tabs falls entirely within one of said bands.

3. The method of manufacturing strip shingles having a plurality o! spaced tabs each surfaced over the entire area thereof with surfacing materlal oi dinerent color from that on a contiguous tab, which comprises applying parallel differently colored Abands ot granular surfacing material longitudinally to a coated rooting base.

' cutting said base at spaced intervals along generally diagonally extending broken lines to form the shingle elements, said shingle elements each having shingle-simulating tabs separated by CLARENCE R. ECKERT.

CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 2,158,557.

May 16, 1939.

CLARENCE R. ECKERT.

It is hereby Vcertified. that error appears in the printed specification of the above numbered `patentV requiring correction as follows: Page 2, second column, line MB, claim 1, for the vgord 'continuous" read contiguous; page 5, second column, line 8, claim 5, for "if" read of; and that the said Letters Patent should be read .with this correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed and sealed this 20th day of June, A. D. 1959.

(Seal) Henry Van Arsdale Acting Gomis .si oner of Patents.

3. The method of manufacturing strip shingles having a plurality o! spaced tabs each surfaced over the entire area thereof with surfacing materlal oi dinerent color from that on a contiguous tab, which comprises applying parallel differently colored Abands ot granular surfacing material longitudinally to a coated rooting base.

' cutting said base at spaced intervals along generally diagonally extending broken lines to form the shingle elements, said shingle elements each having shingle-simulating tabs separated by CLARENCE R. ECKERT.

CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 2,158,557.

May 16, 1939.

CLARENCE R. ECKERT.

It is hereby Vcertified. that error appears in the printed specification of the above numbered `patentV requiring correction as follows: Page 2, second column, line MB, claim 1, for the vgord 'continuous" read contiguous; page 5, second column, line 8, claim 5, for "if" read of; and that the said Letters Patent should be read .with this correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed and sealed this 20th day of June, A. D. 1959.

(Seal) Henry Van Arsdale Acting Gomis .si oner of Patents. 

